I’ve been thinking about the classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and one of its repeating storylines, involving a game called Calvinball. Calvinball had only one permanent rule: No two games of Calvinball could be exactly alike. To ensure this, any player could declare a new rule at any point in the game. All players also had to wear a Calvinball mask, no questions asked. Any arbitrary penalty could be assessed in the form of whatever pain, embarrassment, or humiliation the player wished to execute upon another player. Life’s like that, after all.
What got me thinking about this was a recent development in the Brave New War Against Terror. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, a team of US military lawyers was reportedly dismissed by the Pentagon after complaining that the rules for promised trials of prisoners being held in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were unfair. A Pentagon spokesperson has, as you might expect, staunchly denied the report, although there’s no word whether the spokesperson was wearing his or her mask at the time.
Most of the 600 prisoners in Gitmo have been there for two years without being officially charged with anything, or allowed access to lawyers. The US has promised that at least some of the prisoners will be charged . . . “soon,” and they may even be able to speak to the lawyers they’ve never met. The prisoners do have a theoretical right to a civilian lawyer, but financial obstacles and bureaucratic rules stand in the way, making government approved and appointed representation pretty much the prisoners’ only option.
The first group of defense lawyers recruited for Guantanamo quietly flinched at Pentagon rules that insisted, among other restrictions, that the government be allowed to listen in on any conversations between attorney and client. When several lawyers vocally argued one morning that this prevented them from properly representing their clients, they were fired that afternoon.
“It’s like you took military justice, gave it to a prosecutor and said, “Modify it any way you want,'” according to a source quoted in the Guardian story. Sound like anything familiar?
What the Bushies see as The War to protect our freedoms (and which the rest of the world is beginning to see as Dubya Dubya III) has somehow turned into a game of global Calvinball.
Which leaves an important question left unanswered. Just how long has President Bush owned a stuffed tiger?
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2003.
